Scripture Verse

A new heart…will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

Introduction

portrait
Johann Bach (1685–1750)

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems (HSP) (Bris­tol, Eng­land: Fe­lix Far­ley, 1742), pag­es 261–64, alt. Note: There is a dif­fer­ent hymn by Wes­ley, with the same first line, in the 1749 edi­tion of HSP.

Music: Vom Him­mel hoch from Geist­liche Lied­er, by Val­en­tin Schu­mann (Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny: 1539). Har­mo­ny by Jo­hann S. Bach (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

God of all pow­er, and truth, and grace,
Which shall from age to age en­dure,
Whose word, when Hea­ven and earth shall pass.
Remains, and stands for ev­er sure.

Calmly to Thee my soul looks up,
And waits Thy pro­mis­es to prove,
The ob­ject of my stead­fast hope,
The seal of Thine eter­nal love.

That I Thy mer­cy may pro­claim,
That all man­kind Thy truth may see:
So hal­low Thy great, glo­ri­ous name,
And per­fect ho­li­ness in me.

Chose from the world if now I stand
Adorned in right­eous­ness di­vine;
If brought un­to the pro­mised land,
I just­ly call the Sav­ior mine.

Perform the work Thou hast be­gun
My in­most soul to Thee, con­vert;
Love me, for ev­er love Thine own,
And sprin­kle with Thy blood my heart.

Thy sanc­ti­fy­ing Spir­it pour
To quench my thirst, and wash me clean:
Now, Fa­ther, let the gra­cious show­er
Descend, and make me pure from sin.

Purge me from ev­ery sin­ful blot,
My id­ols all be cast aside,
Cleanse me from ev­ery ev­il thought,
From all the filth of self and pride.

Give me a new, a per­fect heart,
From doubt, and fear, and sor­row free,
The mind which was in Christ im­part,
And let my spir­it cleave to Thee.

O take this heart of stone away!
Thy sway it doth not, can­not own;
In me no long­er let it stay;
O take away this heart of stone.

The hat­red of the car­nal mind
Out of my flesh at once re­move;
Give me a ten­der heart, re­signed
And pure, and full of faith and love.

Within me Thy good Spir­it place,
Spirit of health, and love, and pow­er;
Plant in me Thy vic­to­ri­ous grace,
And sin shall ne­ver en­ter more.

Cause me to walk in Christ my way;
And I Thy sta­tutes shall ful­fill,
In ev­ery point Thy law ob­ey,
And per­fect­ly per­form Thy will.

Hast Thou not said, who can­not lie,
That I Thy law shall keep and do?
Lord, I be­lieve; though men deny:
They are all false, but Thou art true.

O that I now, from sin re­leased,
Thy Word may to the ut­most prove!
Enter into the pro­mised rest,
The Canaan of Thy per­fect love.

There let me ev­er, ev­er dwell,
Be Thou my God, and I will be
Thy ser­vant; O set to Thy seal,
Give me eter­nal life in Thee.

From all re­main­ing filth with­in,
Let me in Thee sal­va­tion have,
From ac­tual, and from in­bred sin,
My ran­somed soul per­sist to save.

Wash out my deep ori­gin­al stain,
Tell me no more, it can­not be,
Demons, or men! The Lamb was slain,
His blood was all poured out for me.

Sprinkle it, Je­su, on my heart!
One drop of Thy all cleans­ing blood
Shall make my sin­ful­ness de­part,
And fill me with the life of God.

Father, sup­ply my ev­ery need;
Sustain the life Thy­self has giv’n:
Call for the ne­ver fail­ing Bread,
The Man­na that comes down from Heav’n.

The gra­cious fruits of right­eous­ness,
Thy bless­ings’ un­ex­haust­ed store
In me abun­dant­ly in­crease
Nor let me ev­er hun­ger more.

Let me no more in deep com­plaint
My lean­ness, O my lean­ness, cry,
Alone con­sumed with pin­ing want
Of all my Fa­ther’s child­ren I!

The pain­ful thirst, the fond de­sire,
Thy joy­ous pre­sence shall re­move,
While my full soul doth still re­quire
Thy whole eter­ni­ty of love.

Holy, and true, and right­eous Lord,
I wait to prove Thy per­fect will,
Be mind­ful of Thy gra­cious word,
And stamp me with Thy Spir­it’s seal.

Thy faith­ful mer­cies let me find,
In which Thou caus­est me to trust;
Give me the meek and low­ly mind,
And lay my spir­it in the dust.

Show me how foul my heart hath been,
When all re­newed by grace I am,
When Thou hast emp­tied me of sin,
Show me the full­ness of my shame.

Open my faith’s in­ter­ior eye:
Display Thy glo­ry from above,
And all I am shall sink, and die,
Lost in as­ton­ish­ment and love.

Confound, o’er­pow­er me with Thy grace!
I would be by my­self ab­horred;
All might, all ma­jes­ty, all praise,
All glo­ry be to Christ my Lord!

Now let me gain per­fect­ion’s height;
Now let me in­to no­thing fall!
Be less than no­thing in Thy sight,
And feel that Christ is all in all.